Mantle knew glory and sadness

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Monday, June 30, 2008

When baseball icon Mickey Mantle, 63, neared the end of his life while fighting cancer, he called former New York Yankee teammate Bobby Richardson, asking for his prayers. Throughout his baseball career, Richardson placed faith and family above baseball.

Richardson not only comforted his friend on the phone, but later visited Mantle in his hospital room. Mickey admitted he would not enter the Pearly Gates strictly by his own good deeds. Richardson told his friend to be at peace with himself and to commit himself unto the Lord. Mantle died Aug. 13, 1995.

In his latter years Mantle said he was driven to alcoholism, partially, by a fear of early death. His father and grandfather each died of Hodgkin's disease before the age of 41.

Mantle frequently used a line popularized by football legend Bobby Layne, a Dallas neighbor and friend of Mantle who also died in part due to alcohol abuse: "If I'd known I was gonna live this long, I'd have taken a lot better care of myself."

Sadly, Mantle, his wife, Merlyn, and all four of their sons battled alcoholism.

Billy Mantle, 36, died one year before his father, on March 12, 1994. Billy had been stricken with Hodgkin's disease at the age of 19. Though in remission, he later became addicted to painkillers and alcohol. He was in and out of drug rehabilitation centers and underwent bypass surgery before his heart gave out.

In 2000 Mickey Mantle, Jr., 47, died of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, five years after the death of his father.

The youngest Mantle son, Danny, who had precancerous polyps removed from his colon, fears the possibility of prostate cancer.

Danny and brother David make their living through the licensing of their father's name.

Merlyn Mantle, now in her 70s, speaks openly about her drinking, Mickey's alcoholism and his philandering. She shows strength of character, even after losing Mickey and two of her four sons.

Long before her husband sought treatment, Merlyn Mantle had counseling and got sober. Eventually, Danny followed suit, preceding his father by three months as a patient at the Betty Ford Center.

In 1993 Mickey was admitted to the Betty Ford Center for alcohol rehabilitation. He received more mail than anyone in the history of the center. Afterward, Mantle spread the message about the ills of drug and alcohol abuse.

On June 8, 1995, Mantle received a liver transplant at Baylor University Hospital in Dallas. Sadly, during the transplant surgery, doctors discovered that Mickey had contracted inoperable cancer.

At Sparkman Hillcrest Cemetery in Dallas, Mickey Mantle and sons Billy and Mickey, Jr., are buried in a crypt inside a huge concrete mausoleum that faces the Garden of Peace.

“The presence of Merlyn's name on the crypt is testament to the durability of their love, despite an often dysfunctional relationship and Merlyn's separation from Mickey in his final six years,” said Richard Sandomit of The New York Times.

Many of us remember Mickey Mantle and his teammate Roger Maris, a Fargo native, playing baseball against the Minnesota Twins at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington during the 1960s.

In eulogizing Mantle during the baseball star’s funeral 13 years ago, sportscaster Bob Costas described Mickey as "a fragile hero to whom we had an emotional attachment so strong and lasting that it defied logic. In the last year of his life, Mickey was hard on himself. He finally came to accept and appreciate the distinction between a role model and a hero. The first, he often was not. The second, he always will be.”